


Within

by Sanolyn



Series: Soriel Week 2017 [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Mute Frisk, Sorielweek2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 22:11:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11678103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanolyn/pseuds/Sanolyn
Summary: Toriel always knew that there was more to Sans than he let on. She might have finally found a clue that could lead her to the truth.Entry for Soriel Week 2017 (Prompt 3: Hidden)





	Within

**Author's Note:**

> Happy to be able to upload Prompt 3 for Soriel Week! As always I hope my silly attempt at writing can be enjoyed.
> 
> Biggest thanks to my beta [raritysdiamonds](http://archiveofourown.org/users/raritysdiamonds/pseuds/raritysdiamonds). Her writing is amazing and should be definitely checked out if high-quality Soriel fic interests.

It fell into her hand as she was cleaning his room. It was small and unobtrusive. Something that she wouldn't have given a second thought to on another day.

A joke book was nothing that seemed unusual for Sans.

What was unusual, however, was what she found as she got curious and tried to open it. She was only hoping to find another joke that Sans would most likely recognize and laugh at, but what she actually found was a quantum physics book hidden inside. She opened that one and yet another joke book appeared. This only kept going on and on.

It was...puzzling, to say the least. At first, it seemed like one of his usual pranks, constructed to frustrate whoever would find this particular book. Not that it would ever work on her.

She was feeling silly today, so she kept going along with it. There must have been magic involved, for this would have been simply impossible otherwise. She smiled the whole time thinking of the ridiculous amount of work her boyfriend must have put into this.

His priorities were in a rather odd order. She would be the first to admit that. He would argue that he didn't have priorities at all.

She was about to put it away, highly amused, when she saw a note in Sans' overly casual and rounded handwriting. At first, she expected a pun or a joke. What she didn't expect was a formula that she couldn't make heads or tails of. On the margin of the page she was on, she found a commentary on another paragraph that seemed to criticize what the author had written. Another small note appeared to be a suggestion on research, marking words that were considered useful and others that were disproven quite systematically.

She immediately closed the books, feeling as if she had gotten farther than she had originally intended. Toriel had very mixed feelings about this. It was definitely not her place to snoop, but why would Sans keep this hidden from her? He had always been secretive, but was this really something he should be secretive about? It was just an interest, was it not? A fascinating one at that.

She closed the small book and put it back where she had found it, finishing her business in his room and leaving it as fast as possible. He had given her access to his room and had, therefore, trusted her. Had he simply expected that she would have quit as soon as she saw no point in opening the books further? Toriel certainly didn’t want to confront him about this. He apparently had very good reasons to hide this from her, if his complicated technique of doing so was any indicator.

However, she couldn’t help but feel curious.

\--

Sans was very good at hiding his own interests, she found out.

Regardless how often she had scolded herself for her curiosity, she did start to analyze his words for any indication of hidden interests or knowledge related to her latest find.

 At one point, she began to wonder if he had simply borrowed the book from someone else and that she had falsely suspected his interest in natural sciences. He never once gave any indication that he knew more about the subject than anyone else he was with. However, this never explained his handwriting away. Toriel liked to think she was able to recognize it. 

Then they had gone stargazing.

\--

It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear and their surroundings dark. The small specks of light that were the stars and the moon were the only thing illuminating the firmament.

Toriel, Frisk, Sans were all lying on a large blanket she had made herself. Seeing the stars again after so many years was still a feeling that she could hardly describe; unreal, as if an old picture had come to life. A comfortable silence settled over them as all were seemingly lost in the beauty above them.

Frisk sat up, looking curiously to the sky and then back to them as they tilted their head to the side.

“How old are the stars?” they asked with their hands. “Have you seen the same stars too, mom?”

A question Toriel hadn’t expected, and with an answer most certainly couldn’t recall. It had been too long. Before she could form a reply, however, Sans' answer derailed her thoughts.

“the stars you see now are at least billions of years old, kiddo. if you mean the constellations and all that jazz, they’re pretty old, too,” he told them as he looked up to the sky.

He seemed to do that at least somewhat subconsciously as his thoughts seemed to be very far away from them. His eye-lights truly shone and he seemed for once fully awake, the shadows beneath his sockets barely noticeable. She was never sure how she could tell how genuine his grin was, but she was always filled with happiness as soon as she noticed that he was truly smiling.

She rarely saw an expression on him that was so passionate and wide open.

“Billions of years?” her child had asked with disbelieving excitement.

“the light took that long to travel to us. they’re pretty far away, you know? some might be gone already,” he answered.

“That seems really sad…”

He shrugged. “if you think about it that way it could be, but lemme paint you a different picture. isn’t it kinda like looking into the past?”

This was a rather interesting interpretation of things. It seemed almost surreal, but Toriel was happy that he tried to make her child feel better without lying to young Frisk.

They just nodded slightly, reluctantly. “My teachers in school said the sun is a star, too. Does that mean it's also dead?”

Sans laughed at that; one might have thought in a condescending way, but this wasn’t the truth at all. Just warm and amused and… slightly proud? She never wanted to forget that sound.

“nice brand of logic you got there, but nah. the light of the sun only takes a few minutes. we get to keep it for another five billion years,” he explained.

Frisk nodded happily and laid back down.

“wanna know which sign is which?” he asked, sounding almost a little bit giddy himself.

Toriel almost giggled. “I never knew that you were so knowledgeable about the stars. It is really interesting.”

Sans' expression dimmed slightly. “that’s just common knowledge, tori. i’m not that well-informed or anything.”

She frowned, for two reasons. The first was that she was slightly worried she had reminded him of something that he didn’t want to be reminded of. The second was her noticing how he had downplayed himself. He didn’t seem to notice how much it had hurt her, too.

Toriel took his hand again, grasping it firmly, but not hard enough to hurt him. Then she looked at him and turned his head towards her direction. She tried to adopt an expression that was as stern as possible without being accusatory.

“This might be common knowledge for a human. However, don’t forget that we had almost no resources from beyond the mountain, let alone from space. I find your passion for this subject very admirable,” she stated.

She saw his magic stain his cheekbones a slight blue color, his eye-lights avoiding her intense gaze. She feared that he would retreat again and shut out his surroundings. A carefully constructed mask swept over his whole expression.

She smiled weakly and then took Frisk’s hand with her left paw, looking into the sky again.

“You wanted to show us the constellations?” she asked.

“sure. of course,” he confirmed.

He did, even if she noticed that his speech was overly casual and that he downplayed a lot of his rather interesting facts with his self-deprecating demeanor. Was this how he usually kept things about himself hidden? Downplaying himself so much that no one would imagine he knew more than he let on?

Over time he eased into the explanations, and his true passion shone through. Frisk giggled at some of his jokes and Toriel squeezed the two hands in her paws further, kissing Sans’ cheekbones occasionally when she was sure that Frisk wasn’t looking. It was amusing how it made him halt and stuttered over his next bout of information. 

His half-hearted glares were met with sweet smiles from her side. He got used to it soon enough and she was completely content just listening to his slightly enthused voice as he told her and Frisk trivia that was sometimes even new to her.

\--

The next day, she noticed something was amiss. She usually kept a small picture with her. A somewhat hastily drawn rendition of her first human child with beautiful white wings. Asriel had drawn it shortly after he heard how important to the underground his sibling was. He had forgotten about it soon after, but she had found it and kept it with her since.

It should have been in a well-hidden pocket among her robes, but she couldn’t find it after she had been stargazing with her family. She must have lost it there, then. A pang of heavy loss pierced her soul. Of course, she had more trinkets around her to remind herself of the past, but nothing showed clearer what most had long forgotten. What Chara had been to her, to Asriel and the underground.

That they had been a hero before their death, despite how their fate had taken any remaining hope left in the underground. It didn’t seem that they were well remembered; everything that made them sweet and kind had been hidden from public knowledge, and history had forgotten who they truly were.

“tori?”

She flinched and turned around to see Sans in the doorway, looking at her in worried confusion. They were supposed to leave for a get together at Grillby’s newly reopened bar, and she had told him she was just going to get her purse. It didn’t occur to her how out of it she’d been.

“you ok?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, fine. I apologize. It seems I have misplaced something,” she explained, as calmly as possible.

His eye-sockets narrowed as he seemed to be trying to read her. His gaze was oddly perceptive, and she suddenly felt as though he could read her thoughts by her countenance alone, before understanding dawned on his features. He fumbled around in the pocket of his jacket and produced a small slip of paper from it. On it was the picture she had been searching for so desperately.

“i saw it fall out. figured it belonged to you. i wanted to give it back sooner, but forgot.”

His gaze seemed to be slightly apologetic, even if he had found something most precious to her.

Toriel didn’t care how bright her smile was at the moment. “Sans! Thank you!”

He gave her the small picture and she held it close to her soul. “I can’t thank you enough!”

He chuckled. “eh , 'twas nothing.”

Toriel shook her head and looked at it again, stroking a paw softly over the passionate work of her child. “It really isn’t. Not many remember Chara as the angel of the underground. As -”

She held the picture just a little bit tighter, trying to keep down everything that threatened to spill: words, tears and her composure. She fought hard not to tremble, against every memory that wanted to resurface. Her magic suddenly felt like lead, her soul heavier than she could carry.

“When Asriel passed away, most monsters thought that they were to blame… It was as if all good memories of them were suddenly erased from the minds of all monster-kind,” she finished.

“i think i kinda know what you mean,” he said. “but at least you remember them, right?”

She looked up and noticed that his smile was just the slightest bit crooked.

She nodded shakily. She couldn’t help but wonder what or who he was talking about. Had he lost someone too?

“you can tell me if ya want to. who they actually were? ‘m afraid my perspective is skewed too.”

He seemed earnest, and she wanted to - stars, how much she wanted to. However, it seemed the slightest bit unbalanced if she told him everything and he still kept so many things hidden from her sight.

She put the picture away and composed herself, an action that she was already more than familiar with and didn’t take much to accomplish. She kept her face carefully neutral and put on the smallest of smiles.

“I will, Sans, if you tell me who you have lost,” she decided.

His startled look of confusion was everything she needed to convince herself that she had guessed completely right. She smiled patiently at him and waited for him to recollect himself.

“…how?” he asked.

“I am not as unperceptive as you think, dear.”

He sighed heavily and looked at her again, then crossed his arms.

“you really won’t believe me,” he muttered.

Why would he even think that? Yes, he could lie, that she knew, but it was mostly to hide, not to spread unnecessary false information.

“Try me,” she challenged.

He seemed to have expected that answer already, because he shrugged in defeat. “alright, but give me a little bit time for that. it’s a bit hard to swallow.”

“As much as you need, even though I consider myself quite capable of hearing everything you have to say,” she countered.

“heh, alright,” he conceded.

Her smile grew, happy that he had agreed to share this information with her even if he did need some time to do, so. Now, however...

“Good. We have a reopening to attend, no?” she reminded him. “We will resume this conversation later.”

“after you, m’lady,” Sans said.

He bowed and chuckled, and she felt a real smile form on her muzzle.

It was strange; even the thought of sharing everything that she had hidden made her feel significantly lighter. If Sans' responding grin was any indicator, he might have felt relieved too.

She couldn’t tell if he was looking forward to sharing his story with her, or if he was simply glad that she had given him time.

She didn’t care, as long as he trusted her enough to do so - however far in the future.


End file.
